The Tale of Umbrius
by umbrius
Summary: This is the life story of Umbrius, told by himself.
1. The Beginning

My name is Umbrius, the dark Dragon, Lord of the Seven Tides. I rule the three tides of time, past present and future, the tide of thought, the tides of light and darkness and the tide of wisdom. I have ruled the great tides since the death of my family, several millennia ago. Before I became the Lord of the Seven, I led a very happy life, even though I did face death and resurrection thrice.  
  
I was born, or rather, created in the year 2,332, made to be THE ultimate weapon. It was in the middle of a vast war within the universe. My father was losing in a power struggle, he and two other beings were battling over several areas of a galaxy. The two beings were rivals and hated each other, but both were far more powerful physically, magically, and militarily than my father was. My father, many years before then, began working on a machine than would fuse anything inside together. After he built the machine, he began to kill, collect, and cryogenically freeze the greatest warriors and mages of each being he came across. By the year 2,332, he had built up a vast collection, one of every creature from the size of an ant to the size of the greatest of the Great Wyrm Dragons. Then he wrote several minor programs that were to be uploaded to me, just to make sure that I would always be under his control. One of which would mentally bind me to him, he would then always know where, how, why, He used his machine, as well as a little magic, to fuse all of the creatures into one being. But, somewhere among the millions of calculations there was a mistake. This mistake caused two beings to be created, not one. Those two were myself, Experiment 689, and my brother, Experiment 690, and instead of me being mentally tied to him, I was linked with one who was born at the same moment that I was, she will be discussed later, but her name was Minerva Liberty Taylor (Minty for short). Though we were considered a failure, my father decided to NOT waste a chance, and he began teaching and training us. When we came of the correct age, he sent us to two separate on-board (on one of several space-stations) schools and had us trained in magic, fighting, and strategy. He was trying to see who was the superior sibling. He soon found out that 690 was physically stronger than most of his teachers, though he was slow physically and mentally and had very little magic, whereas I had incredible magic and speed, normal wit, but physically I was a runt, I could barely lift even 80 pounds when I reached the physical age of fourteen.  
  
However, I will not bore you with these petty details, I will tell you, in-depth, my life story as far back as my first memory . . .  
  
I awoke in a large metal chamber, vaguely aware that someone was next to me. I was only a few moments old, but, due a glitch in the calculations, I was aging rapidly, one hour for every second, but its was slowing on an exponential scale, in other words slowly slowing down, and I new somehow, someway, that one other nearby was going through the same thing.  
  
Soon, I was taken out of the first room, only to be put into another one, and once again I wasn't alone. But, for an unknown reason, I could sense the person next to me. I could feel her mind, her very soul, it soothed me. I noticed that she was built differently than I was (I later discovered that she was called a 'taur), but my body, slowly, shifted until we matched types.  
  
Over the next three years, I spent more and more time with this other person, called Minerva, and I found out that she was aging as I was (due to the glitch-link), we had both reached the effective age of eight, and now our aging had slowed to that of a normal person and was still slowing . . .  
  
"Hiya, Minty," I exclaimed, bounding up to her, "So . . . d'ya got the stuff?"  
  
"Mornin' Joey. Yeah, I got it," she replied excitedly.  
  
"Good, we'll set it up after school today, now come on, we're late. If I'm late to class again, dad's gonna ground me . . . again," I urged.  
  
We set our prank stuff in my room then ran down the halls of the space-station to our classroom. We just crammed in the door as the late bell rang.  
  
"Good morning Joseph and Minerva. Nice to see you on time today," said Mrs. Czech, our teacher.  
  
She then had us open our workbooks to a certain page, but Minty and I weren't listening. We were talking to each other by way of our mind-link, no one knew that we could speak mind-to-mind.  
  
: :So, who're we prankin' t'day?: : I asked.  
  
: :How 'bout Mrs. Czech?: :  
  
: :'Kay, she's hard to get, though.: :  
  
: :Yeah, but with this stuff we just got, its gonna be more fun . . .: :  
  
"Joseph, Minerva, what is the answer to question three?" asked Mrs. Czech, who knew that we weren't listening.  
  
"Sorry, don't know," answered Minty after taking a moment to look at the question.  
  
"Well, you're the teacher, you should know, shouldn't you?" I replied, being a smart-ass. "I mean, if you don't know, then you must not be a very good teacher, huh?"  
  
Minty and much of the class giggled, but Mrs. Czech looked a little peeved at my smart-ass remark, "Joseph, I am going to have to have another talk with your father." She then went back to working through the first few problems with the class.  
  
: :Aw, Joey. Now you're gonna get grounded for sure.: :  
  
: :Yeah, so I guess we gotta prank her -right- after class.: :  
  
The rest of our day was pretty uneventful, besides Minty and I cheating on our tests and work by giving each other the answers. But soon, school ended and we ran my room to get our prank supplies.  
  
"It's 'bout time that the stupid shocker arrived. I was beginnin' ta think that it would never get here," I said as we pulled out a small, one- button device and several little stickers. It had cost us each four months combined allowance, but we finally bought it.  
  
"'Kay, ya ready Minty. We practiced this magic for weeks. I will move the stickers and our seeing to the room, you've gotta put one sticker on her butt, and, if ya can, one right under my dad's tail."  
  
"He's gonna kill you if he finds out that its us."  
  
"Yeah, but its gonna be worth it ta see his face when he gets a 'big shock'."  
  
We got to work almost right away, I scryed out the room, so that Minty and I could see in from my room, took the stickers there, then held the spell as Minty strategically placed the stickers.  
  
"Your son, Joseph, and his partner-in-crime, Minerva, are continuing to cause disruptions in my class, I will not allow this much mo-" began Mrs. Czech, but she and my father suddenly yelped in pain and surprise, "YEOWCH."  
  
They yelped several times before finding the sticker and removing them. I ended the scry spell and we burst out laughing, unable to breath correctly for almost half an hour, which was okay for me, I didn't need to breath, and we were both extremely red from laughing so hard. When we finally finished our uproarious guffawing, we destroyed the evidence of our prank, literally, for we conjured some fire and burnt the stickers and remote to ashes. We were both well know in the station as pyro's, so the smell of burning would not be questioned.  
  
My father came home just as we had gotten the ash off of the floor, "6 . . . 8 . . . 9 . . . GET IN HERE NOW."  
  
We knew by the tone in his voice that I was in trouble. I walked into the living room, bade Minty a sad good-bye, and sat on the floor, being unable to sit in a chair in the 'taur form I had.  
  
He had an angry look on his face, "689, I am very disappointed in you. Why do you insist on back-talking all of the teachers that you have?"  
  
I could tell by his expression that he didn't like my answer, "Because its funny?"  
  
"You know, that I'm going to have to ground you, don't you?" at my nod he continued, "No video-games or allowance for a month and extra combat lessons."  
  
"WHAT! MORE LESSONS?"  
  
"Because, you will start doing what I made you for, in four days you will start fighting in the war. I know that your magic and speed is up to standard. Your mage teachers tell me that you are learning almost faster than they can teach you."  
  
I just stared at him, mouth gaping, "Just remember, 689, the faster you do what I've told you when you get out there, the sooner you can come back in here and play with Minty."  
  
I just nodded then went to my room to mind-talk to Minty, who (via the mind-link) heard everything.  
  
: :That sucks. Now we're gonna have even less time to play.: : I heard Minty complain in my mind.  
  
: :Yeah, but I read about something that might be able to help us, a demi-plane. The book we need on how to make one is in my dad's restricted library. Its gonna be hard to get but I think that we can.: :  
  
: :We?: :  
  
: :Yeah, we're gonna use that energy combining thing that we learned.: :  
  
: :'Kay, that sounds good, but what in space is a demi-plane?: :  
  
: :A demi-plane is kinda like another world built inside of another one, but it takes up no room. It is just a much bigger and more advanced E.D. (extra dimensional) space.  
  
"689, it is time to go to your magic lessons. Go and get Minerva and then report to your instructor," I heard my dad call to me.  
  
: :I'll meet you at the class door.: : I told Minty, who also heard my dad.  
  
In our magic lessons, we were learning how to make bigger E.D. spaces, or magic spaces that held more than what it normally could. We knew that Mage Isynchris was forbidden from teaching us how to make a demi- plane, or some other magic of such advanced level.  
  
I had to stay, long after Mage Isynchris dismissed our class, for extra lessons. Thankfully, Minty stayed with me and helped to make it more bearable. I had to practice most of my damaging magic, some of the healing magic, and a few spells of banishment.  
  
Luckily for us, that day was the last day of a school month; we would now have five days until we had to return to class. Our parents let me stay at Minty's over-night, and Minty and I spent all of the first two nights trying to get past my father's protective wards on the restricted section. We finally succeeded on the third night, I just got mad and took a magical "swing" at the barrier. That just happened to be dad's pass- code.  
  
But, as the saying goes, 'It takes more energy to miss than to hit.' We got the book, but I was so tired from exerting myself that I actually fell asleep standing up. Though, I did NOT awake that way, but I did wake with a bruise on my head.  
  
We didn't have time to try to make a demi-plane because at noon my father came to get me, "You will be doing your first battle today, 689."  
  
We got into one of his battle cruisers and headed to the front-lines of a minor battle. Now, dad made me train in the simulators so I knew what to expect, but here I could actually get killed. We landed on a small planet, where, apparently, there was a small battle going on.  
  
My father sent me out to fight, my very first battle.  
  
I decided to get this over with as soon as I possibly could, I sent a bolt of pink lightning at the nearest enemy. He exploded in a bloody, gory display. I focused some more energy into a ball about the size of a basketball, then threw it as far into the enemy ranks as I was able to. I guess I used more than I had thought, because the explosion even sent me flying backwards, but where it hit there was nothing in a 100-foot radius.  
  
I then came upon my first real challenge, a mage. He laughed at the notion of confronting a child, but I made him eat that laugh when I focused my energy into a disk about 3' in diameter and hurled it at him.  
  
He barely brought up a shield in time, then retaliated with a disk of his own. Now, during one of my simulator sessions, Minty taught me a trick when being attacked with energy disks. Just before his disk hit me, I rammed my palms together, catching the disk millimeters from my face.  
  
I breathed a sigh of relief at having actually caught it. Then I threw it back and fired a green beam at him. He shattered the disk with a small blue bolt, but the green beam caught him by surprise. It hit him squarely in the chest and he turned to dust.  
  
I went back to my father, very worn out. He had an officer escort me back to the station, where Minty was awaiting me expectantly.  
  
"I need to rest, I used up most of my energy blasting . . ." I trailed off, having collapsed from exhaustion . . . 


	2. Success

I woke to a slight nagging in my mind. The first thing that I noticed was that I was not on my own bed. The second was that I was being watched.  
  
I rolled over to see Minty watching me, a great deal of concern on her face, "How ya feelin?"  
  
"Ohhh," I groaned, "What happened?"  
  
"Ya passed out. I had to drag you here, my room was closer than yours, by Fire and Rain, you are HEAVY."  
  
I laughed, "Well thanks, it feels good for someone to actually be worried about me. How long've I been out?"  
  
"'Bout four weeks, it's a good thing that you don't need to eat."  
  
I gaped at her, "F-FOUR WEEKS? Did I really use that much power?"  
  
"Yeah, I saw the whole thing through our link, it was AWESOME."  
  
"I could have made it more graphic, but I wanted to hurry." Then a thought crossed my mind, "How often has dad come in?"  
  
Her face grew grave as she answered, "He hadn't even asked bout you."  
  
"Oh well, its not as if that's any different than normal. What day 'zit?" I said as I climbed off of the bed.  
  
"It's the third day of five day break."  
  
"Hmm, hey d'ya got anythin t'eat?"  
  
"I still don't get you, ya don need to eat, why do you?"  
  
"Its fun."  
  
"If you say so. Lunch was just over, maybe there are some left-overs in the mess-hall."  
  
At that I touched her nose, "TAG YOUR IT," and took off in the direction of the mess-hall.  
  
She tackled me just outside the mess-hall doors, then said as she got off of me, "Now YOUR it," then opened the door and went in.  
  
Because I was sore, it took me a few minutes to get up and get in. Just before I opened the door, I heard a familiar, slow voice call to me, "Hey, wimp, ja fan-ly get up?"  
  
I turned around to see my twin brother walking towards me. He and I, while twins, differed greatly, I had incredible magic and I was fast (both physically and mentally) but had no strength to speak of, while he could easily lift Minty and myself (total of about 250 pounds) and hurl us through the steel walls of the mess-hall, but he had almost no magic and was slightly dim-witted.  
  
He couldn't understand, though neither could I, why Minty liked me over him. We both thought that girls liked muscle-bound gladiators.  
  
He frogged me on the arm as he passed, slamming my sore body into the wall, and went into the mess. I stepped in to see him at a table, harassing Minty. She obviously wanted him to leave, but he didn't want to leave.  
  
As I got closer I could hear their conversation, ". . . c'mon, Joey's a loser, he couldn't 'elp you do anytin, and you know dat."  
  
"Shut up and go away," she told him, apparently neither of them knew I was near.  
  
"'Kay, but I wan a kiss foist. Gimme a kiss." He lunged at her and grabbed her, she struggled, but could do nothing to him, he greatly over powered her.  
  
I felt something in me snap, the sight of someone threatening my best friend threw me into a blood-lust rage.  
  
"LET . . . HER . . . GO," was all I said as I sent a violet lightning bolt at him. When it hit him his grip on Minty dropped and he flew into a table, smoking and groaning in pain.  
  
Minty grabbed my tray, knowing that she had put too much food on it for me to lift, and we left in a hurry, running back to her room.  
  
When we got back to her room, we burst out laughing, "I'll betcha he wudn't 'spectin THAT," said Minty, gasping for breath.  
  
"Yeah, me too. Ya know, for a wimp ah sure pack a punch."  
  
We laughed for several more minutes before I stopped and ate. Minty just watched as I stuffed the food in my mouth as fast as I possibly could.  
  
After I had eaten my fill, Minty shoved a book in my face, "'Kay, now that you stuffed yer face, lets get started on that demi-plane."  
  
I opened the book to the table of contents, found the section on demi- planes, and then flipped to it. I read the section and found out that it was a ritual.  
  
"This is NOT gonna be easy," I said, "It says we need four demon ritual candles, a blood circle, and a bon-fire."  
  
"NO WAY."  
  
"Nah, I'm just pullin yer leg, we really only need one white, one black, and one red candle, a ritual knife, and the casters have to be mind- linked."  
  
"Well, THAT'S just great, where're we gonna getta ritual knife?"  
  
"Don know. Hmm. Maybe dad has one we can take."  
  
"Oh yeah, like we could even get it if he does. You know da library is only a little guarded, his stuff has to have a major spell on it."  
  
I was suddenly struck by inspiration, I flipped back to the table of contents and looked up ritual knife. I found it, it was pretty easy to make one.  
  
I sent Minty to get a kitchen knife. I pricked our fingers with it, letting some blood drip down it, then we both held the handleand put our own energy into it. The knife glowed crimson with mine, then sky-blue with hers, then green as they mixed.  
  
"So, that's it?"  
  
"That's all the book says."  
  
"Then lets get started."  
  
Minty got the candles, told her parents that we were going to bed early, then came back and locked the door.  
  
We set up the candles in a triangle, stood in the center, and pushed our power through the knife, just as the book instructed. We held it over our heads, then pointed at each candle, pouring energy into them. Each flame turned green under our power.  
  
I looked back at the book to read the incantation, I was to read the words and put the appropriate names or words in where needed, "Dos uniam, riktor pra, eviendos chiropraktus, zos, by the power of Fire and Rain we call to us the power of worlds, the power to make our own, the power control it, and the power to re . . . restricit . . . restrict others from entring."  
  
The power in the candles and knife focused above us and I whispered to Minty, "Think real hard 'bout whatcha want to be yer doorway in an' push all of your power into the knife."  
  
She nodded in understanding, then we both pushed the rest of our energy into the knife. The power exploded, snuffing out the candles and shattering the knife.  
  
A mediaeval door appeared before Minty, which opened, and a rip appeared before me. We stepped through and they closed behind us, but we didn't have a chance to look around because we were yanked back out and we passed out on the floor from the usage of all of our energy . . .  
  
We woke at 7:30 the next day. We untangled from each other and looked around. We were glad to see the stuff still in place, that meant that no one came in. Everyone in the station almost expected explosions from our rooms, we did it often, so no one must've come to inspect this one.  
  
We both were sore and had a headache, though mine was worse, having not fully recovered from my last exertion. We took a few deep breaths and I opened the book again.  
  
I read the passage that told how to open our 'doors', "'To open the prospective doorway to the new demi-plane, simply concentrate on what was used and feed with some energy.' Well that shouldn't be too hard, but be careful Minty, we are pretty drained, using anymore power will probably hurt."  
  
She nodded, but we still tried. It DID hurt, a lot, but we still opened our doors and went in.  
  
Inside was desolate, there was absolutely nothing, a big white nothing that seemed to stretch to infinity.  
  
"We need to put some beds in here," commented Minty.  
  
Then we gasped as two beds appeared.  
  
Minty and I exchanged glances, "Wow, Minty, h-how d'ja do that?"  
  
"I-I don know, I just really wanted some beds, then they appeared."  
  
"Lemme try," I said. I focused and the white infinity became a blue one.  
  
"Well this is kewl, but how is this gonna help us get more time, like you said?"  
  
"Well, according to the book, we can make it so that hours in here are nothing but minutes out there. It said that alla da creators need to all focus on makin it like that at the same time."  
  
We tried it, "Um, Joey? How do we tell if it worked?"  
  
"Lets just go to sleep, when we get up and leave we will see how much time has passed."  
  
We slept for nearly 12 hours, but when we left we found out that only 12 minutes had passed.  
  
Our greatest creation was a huge SUCCESS . . . 


	3. Embarrassment

I ran down the halls, heading to Minty's home. Today was a very special day, we were celebrating our 438th birthday. While we were 438 in truth, we were only 14 physically.  
  
: :Minty, are you awake?: :  
  
: :Uh-huh. Where are you.: :  
  
: :Almost to your front door, come on out, I got us a few hours away from school because its our birthday, and I have surprise for you.: :  
  
: :'Kay. Be right out.: :  
  
I reached her door and was about to knock, when she opened the door, "Mornin' sunshine," she said pinching me on the cheek, she knew I hated that.  
  
"G'mornin' t'you too, fuzz-ball," I replied, pinching her cheek in revenge.  
  
"Oh, shut up, now whatja get fer me? Huh? Huh? Huh?"  
  
I teleported us to the docked space-pods, "Follow me."  
  
We walked into an open one, I shape shifted to a human form and buckled up. Minty, following my lead, did the same, but it was harder for her to shape shift.  
  
When we were tightly buckled, I hit the ignition button, "Houston, we have lift off."  
  
"Shut up ya geek, hey, where are we goin?"  
  
"We're goin ta th'star Dubhe, in the Big Dipper constellation."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"We'll be there in a few minutes, ya just gotta wait."  
  
True to my word, we were there in just minutes, thanks to dad's new warp-drive.  
  
We were about 2500 km from Dubhe, when we arrived.  
  
"'Kay, so what's my present?"  
  
"This star, Dubhe, I got dad to rename it. It is now called MLT-538, Minerva Liberty Taylor-538."  
  
Minty gasped, "How didja get 'im t'do that?"  
  
"It took twenty years of bargaining, but I had to conquer 75 planets in one week for him."  
  
"You did that for me?"  
  
"Yeah, that's where I went a few weeks ago, I had completely worn m'self out, every single planet that he assigned to me was hostile, and I had to fight hundreds of mages and armies. I nearly killed myself, with the exertion and all."  
  
Minty hugged me, "Wow, thanks," but her demeanor turned sad, "This pales my gift in comparison."  
  
"Why, whatja get fer me?"  
  
"I spent most of my hard earned savings to buy you a little magic thing."  
  
"Really? What is it?"  
  
"I bought you a Key of Dimensions."  
  
"KEWL! I can't b'lieve thatcha actually got me one. I've been looking for ages, I haven't even seen one."  
  
"But, all your effort for my gift makes mine look like nothing."  
  
"No it doesn't. You managed to BUY something that I couldn't even get a hint of."  
  
She gave me a light smile and another hug, which I really liked.  
  
We headed back and she gave me my gift. A key of dimensions was a powerful key that could open any door that it touched. There were only five in existence.  
  
"Heh heh heh, we can have a lotta fun with this. I think that this makes mah present look bad."  
  
Our mind-link told me that she felt good for the compliment, but still felt that mine to her was better and she felt bad.  
  
We had to head straight for class when we got back, so we raced. I won, she hated it when I let her win and she could tell when I did.  
  
We arrived in class and everyone looked at us and the teacher, who was currently my dad (he was a sub-teacher today), spoke, "Welcome back 689, Minerva, have a seat. We are on page 56 of your green workbooks."  
  
My dad put Minty and myself in a class with the kitsune and gish, mostly because that they lived to be centuries old, and we were put in with our age group. My father was a half-demon, and he had inherited their millennia long life span, but Minty's parents, though quite long lived, had died about 130 years ago.  
  
Today, my mind wasn't in class, it was on Minty. Lately, I've caught myself looking at her . . . 'more prominent features' (if ya catch my drift . . . ). She didn't notice me watching, no one did in fact. Then I noticed something, something really embarrassing. Due to my staring, something happened, something that can only happen to a guy. What was worse, was that my dad had noticed.  
  
"689, go out in the hall, now."  
  
I did, but was worried, what if someone came by?  
  
I waited, but not for long. My dad came out, took me into his office, and locked the door.  
  
"I knew this day would come around, eventually," he said, "But YOU have a bigger problem. I have seen you shape shift to female form before, if you do that now, because of the way I made you, you will have a reaction called heat. You know what that is, do you not?" at my nod, he continued, "You will have to find a way to solve your problem by yourself. The most that I will do is to give you a private room."  
  
At that, he opened a door behind him, said, "You can use this one, that is what I built it for. I wasted nothing when I created you and your brother. Return to class when you are done," then left.  
  
I felt profoundly embarrassed, my DAD had caught me with an erection. But, I knew that he was right. He knew that this day would come, but I had no idea that it would be so soon.  
  
Thirty minutes later, I returned to class, and mind-spoke to Minty, : :Minty, when we get to the demi-plane after class, I have something I need to tell you.: :  
  
: :Alright, but where d'ja go?: :  
  
: :I'll tell you in the demi-plane.: :  
  
After class, we proceeded to a private room and entered our demi- plane. By now we had figured out how to create stuff and had severaly nicely furnished rooms.  
  
I sat down on a large pad in our living-room, being in a 'taur form I couldn't sit on a chair.  
  
"Minty," I began, really embarrassed.  
  
She could tell from my mind that I was having a hard time speaking my mind, "Its okay, I'm not gonna judge you, you know that."  
  
"Yeah, but this is pretty embarrassing, today . . . I had my first . . . . . . my first hard-on." I said, blushing furiously.  
  
Minty was taken aback, whatever she was expecting, that wasn't it, but she quickly regained her composure. She rarely lost her composure, this was one of the, maybe eight times in the 438 years that I had known her.  
  
She gave me a reassuring hug, "Its okay. You are still my best friend."  
  
"There's more. You were the reason for it."  
  
Once again she was taken aback, wow twice in one day, a new record, "Me? You were looking at me?"  
  
I looked down at the floor, even more embarrassed, "Yeah."  
  
"I guess that I should be flattered, but I don't know what ta think."  
  
"Worse, there is even MORE. If I shape shift to a female or herm form, I will be in heat."  
  
For a third time, Minty lost her composure, "More good news, huh? Is there anything else?"  
  
"Yeah, I, by myself, satisfied my, umm . . . urges."  
  
"Hmm, I don't know what to say."  
  
"I-I feel very confused. I have to endure both sides of the gender track. I don't know what I'm gonna do when heat hits."  
  
Minty looked a bit worried, "I am your best friend, I will do what I can to help you through this. I have already been through my first heat, I know what its like."  
  
I looked up at her, feeling much better, "Thanks . . ."  
  
We spent a few hours talking about how we were gonna help our problem and she told me how she 'fixed' her heat problem, she used an odd herbal blend, a really complicated, but effective, one.  
  
We generated the ingredients and made the elixir. I was amazed that so many ingredients produced such a small amount.  
  
We both drank deeply. The elixir worked quickly, I felt the urges slipping away.  
  
We went back to our classes and the day went by fairly quickly.  
  
Minty and I proceeded to my home, she ahead of me. I was walking slowly, deep in thought. Minty must've sensed my inner conflict, "Wass wrong?"  
  
But I didn't get to reply because my dad suddenly walked up to me, "689, come, I need you on the front-lines."  
  
I looked sadly at Minty, but left.  
  
My father brought me into one of his star-cruisers and warped us to the planet that he trying to conquer: Terra-Prime.  
  
We docked at the greater docking-bay, and he sent me into battle straight away.  
  
I first raised a shield, then I focused a huge amount of energy. I aimed this at the nearest enemy unit and a bolt of blood-red lightning erupted from my finger. When it hit him he screamed in pain as he was fried, and the bolt split and hit two more, who also screamed in pain before singeing. The bolt split 8 times, killing 511 soldiers.  
  
This stopped the advancement dead in its tracks, they hadn't expected magic to be used against them, at least not yet.  
  
I continued to send out the lightning, that is, until the commander sent out the mages.  
  
About 15 of the 20 made the same mistake, they laughed at the idea of fighting someone so young, but the others recognized me. They had heard stories of entire armies being decimated by a child.  
  
I focused more energy to cast a spell that Minty and I called 'Scatter blast'. I lifted into the air, faced both of my palms at them, then released the spell. The result was a flurry of high energy blasts.  
  
A few of the mages didn't react fast enough were obliterated, but about 15 of them brought up shields. When I dismissed the spell, the mages were astounded. I had decimated the landscape, five of their number, as well as hundreds of soldiers that were still fighting.  
  
They all touched palms, formed a half-circle, and began a chant in one of the few languages that I didn't know, "Ex kami mortus, ex kami mortus, ex kami mortus . . ."  
  
The result was similar to my scatter blast. I had a tough time dodging them. But, eventually I wasn't fast enough a got hit by one. Well, since that one slowed me down, I was hit by several more, then hundreds more.  
  
When the smoke from the explosions finally subsided, they saw my body lying on the ground. Then two things surprised them: one, my body was still intact, and two, I started to get up.  
  
I could practically smell the fear as I felt them, individually, focus energy.  
  
As I stood, I saw 15 green rays zooming at me, it was all I could do, I held out my hands, palms facing out wards, and tried to block them.  
  
I knew that that was not a brilliant idea, but I had no time to do anything else. The beams all hit my right hand and exploded in a flash of bright green light.  
  
After the flash, the mages cheered in light triumph, my entire arm up to halfway between my elbow and shoulder had been disintegrated.  
  
It had been seared, so there was no bleeding, but the pain was almost unbearable.  
  
I retaliated, barely, with my most dangerous spell: Minty named it the Overdrive Wave.  
  
If I wasn't very careful, I would feel some back-lash, which would be dangerous with the amount of power I was putting in it.  
  
I released the spell, and energy erupted from my body. Everything in a 500-foot sphere was gone, including the mages.  
  
I lowered and rested at the bottom of the huge crater, literally dripping with sweat from using so much power so quickly. I had used a significant portin of my power, far more than I was used to.  
  
After nearly an hour of resting, I heard Minty calling me through our mind-link, "Wow, that was so kewl. That was, by far, the most graphic battle you've had s'far," she said in mock awe.  
  
I laughed, which was good, if I could laugh I'd be a'ight, "Oh shut up. That was hard and you know it, I know you can feel it from there."  
  
Just then, my dad's drop-ship came hovering over me. He beamed me up.  
  
"Excellent, you made short work of them," he said, completely oblivious to the fact that I was in critical condition. "I think you will do another toda-"  
  
"WHAT 'BOUT THIS?" I demanded, pointing to my arm.  
  
"I've seen you heal worse," he said, ignoring my damages.  
  
At that, more angry than I'd ever been, I teleported back to the station, which did more harm than good, because with my damages, while I was already regenerating, combined with the energy that I'd spent, I lost consciousness once again . . . 


	4. Learning the Hard Way

I woke on a large bed in our demi-plane. I sat up, very strenuously. I rubbed my disintegrated arm, it hurt the most, and found that it was nearly all regenerated, all but my middle and ring fingers.  
  
I stretched, un-kinking my muscles, then looked around. I saw Minty asleep on a bed adjacent to mine.  
  
She must've sensed me watching, because she woke, yawned and looked towards me, "Oh, good, I'm glad yer 'wake. I wasn't sure if you would wake this time."  
  
I groaned painfully, "Ohhhhh, ah. Why? How long've I b'n out?"  
  
"Well, out there, only a few hours, but in here its been over a month."  
  
"Wow, that's a long time. Ooh, I'm gonna feel this for a long time."  
  
"I been so worried 'boutcha, I was sure you were gonna die." She hugged me.  
  
"Nah, ya can't git ridda me dat eas'ly." We both laughed.  
  
Suddenly she looked up at me, "Wassa matter, your mind is telling me that somethin's wrong."  
  
I had been debating a serious question recently, but new events sparked my decision. I climbed off of the bed and knelt before Minty, "Minty, I've been thinking about something for the past 11 years. Will you do me the honor of being my life-mate?"  
  
She practically tackled me, "Yes, yes, nothing would make me happier." She kissed me.  
  
This took me by surprise, I had hoped for her to say yes, I was sure she would, but I hadn't expected, even in the least, this reaction.  
  
I wasn't sure why, at least not then, but now I know why, but I had suddenly felt better than I had ever felt, and what was more surprising was that my hand had suddenly finished regenerating.  
  
We spent hours in each other's arms, very content.  
  
We left the demi-plane and proceeded to class, which, of course, we were late to.  
  
When we walked in everyone looked at us and I heard some guy in the back of the class yell, "Looks like someone got lucky," the whole class laughed, and Minty blushed. I didn't, after what happened not to long ago, this was NOT AT ALL embarrassing.  
  
We took our seats, and the teacher finished the lesson and assigned our homework.  
  
I had only woken up for the last half of the last class, so I had a lot of homework; it took me several hours . . . in our demi-plane.  
  
After hours of working, I finally finished all of my work. It was then that I noticed that every bottle of water that I had was empty, so I walked to the common-area kitchen for a cup.  
  
With much practice over the years, Minty and I had made our demi- plane more and more complex. There was her personal section, our common area, and my section. Her area was very organized, similar to a big business building, but mine was more like a three-dimensional maze; I had corridors going every which way, fake doors, upside-down rooms, etc.  
  
Just as I crossed the thresh-hold, I was tackled by Minty, "GOTCHA!"  
  
But she hit the floor; I'd vaporized on the spot.  
  
She grinned up at me, "Cheater."  
  
"So?"  
  
She suddenly had a malicious grin on her face. I glared at her, "No, bad grrl, NO!" I commanded half-heartedly.  
  
She began to channel magic through her sweet voice as she vocalized some notes in a song she named "Minty's Deep-Heart Lament".  
  
See, just recently, she discovered that, not only did she have a very beautiful voice, but when she channeled her magic through it, her magic was gratly amplified.  
  
As I listened to her song, I started to lose myself in it. Then, suddenly, I woke to find myself in a deep kiss with her. But she soon had to break it to take a breath, and when she did, I spoke.  
  
"Cheater . . . "  
  
"So?"  
  
We laughed and wrestled for quite some time. She easily pinned me, seeing as her strength far exceeded my own. But the skirmish had thoroughly worn me out. We left the demi-plane and went to bed, we fell asleep in each others arms . . .  
  
Over the next several months, my father had me fighting in innumerable battles and I had very little time to spend with Minty, but we made the best of our time. He made me fight so much because we told him about our relationship, and apparently that he did not approve.  
  
Then, about one month into a three-month trip my dad sent me on, Minty mind-called me, "I really wish you were here."  
  
"Me too."  
  
"A just can't wait until you get back, you're gonna get a surprise." I could sense something odd in her mind, but I was too busy at the time to ask.  
  
"Don't worry, its only one more-" but I was interrupted by a loud explosion, "I gotta go, we're under attack. If you look through me I'll give you a good show," I do not know if she replied, but she did watch.  
  
Several of Dendrak's, my dad's greatest rival, battalion cruisers were sending warning shots at us. Then someone came up on the com screen.  
  
"That was your final warning shot, you have twenty seconds to surrender before I blow your bloody carcasses down to the seventh hell."  
  
I rushed up to the screen, "Dendrak, we deny your surrender terms. Prepare for a duel."  
  
He laughed, "No one stands a chance against me, child. Fine, we shall duel before I destroy your ship. Cordrunak (my father's name) decide our battle-ground." I resented the way he spoke about my dad (even though I didn't like him).  
  
"No," I yelled, "My father is not here, I am your challenge."  
  
Once again he laughed, the idea of fighting a child was ludicrous to him, which meant that he either hadn't heard about me or didn't believe what he did hear, "Very well, young one, I will grant your death wish, choose your battle-ground."  
  
"Space," I told him in a smug tone. He nodded in acknowledgement and ended the com. I teleported out into space, just in front of the ship, and found him to be there already.  
  
I sent my voice directly into his mind, "Catch me if you can!" and I took off in a random direction.  
  
He managed to stay close behind as I led him away from my dad's fleet, after all, I didn't want to damage them.  
  
When I finally stopped, he arrived a few moments later, fully ready to fight. I started the battle with a bolt of purple lightning.  
  
It hit him squarely in the chest, and he laughed at my effort, "You are going to have to do better than that, young one. Here, let me show you how it's done."  
  
At that he blew demon fire at me, which needs nothing to burn. I barely managed to fend it off with an ice wave. As soon as he stopped, I retaliated with a beam of disintegration. It hit him without effect. Then I knew that I would have to bring out the heavy artillery.  
  
He charged energy in his ugly clawed fist and threw the charge at me. His first striking blow against me. It hit me and exploded with enough force to send me flying straight towards the nearest star. I flew right into it and it went out with a bang. The star was sucking the energy right out of the shield that I had erected and caused itself to go supernova.  
  
He was a lot more powerful than I had expected. Now I was using the heavy magic. I focused my energy as much as I could as fast as I could, then I hurled the blast at him. He moved over several feet and I missed him, but I focused and it began a curve and headed back to him. He sent a blast at it, but I was already familiar with this ploy (Minty used it often) and split the charge into hundreds of smaller pieces. He was hard-pressed to dodge them all, and eventually one hit him, then the rest. When the flash cleared, he still stood (or rather, floated), and the only damage was a singed left arm.  
  
I felt him focus his power, and his arm healed, then he used another familiar technique; my famous scatter-blast. It goes without saying that his was FAR greater than mine. But I knew how to deal with this attack (after all, I invented it). Rather than trying to dodge each blast, which was useless, I tried to deflect each one. I would deflect one into another, destroying both, but, while this was less draining than dodging, I was tiring quickly. So I decided to try a trick that Minty had used on me, beating my scatter-blast. I began deflecting them into huge arcs away from me. Several minutes later, his own blasts were arcing back at him. But before those hit him, he caught me off guard, he cast a massively powerful beam at me. It hit me just as the scatter-blasts hit him. He only lost an arm, but I was sent flying for several minutes.  
  
When the beam finally lost its energy, I was stranded out in space. Since I didn't need to eat, breathe, or drink, it wasn't an immediate concern, but the damages that I had taken were. I was drifting in space, bleeding, with my lower body, my arms up to my elbows, and half my face gone.  
  
I was so far away from any of my dad's ships that it took them, even with Minty guiding them, weeks to find me, and I was in a sorry state. While I had regenerated somewhat, I was still missing from the knees down and the other half of my face, but I was no longer bleeding. I know Minty was ther the whole time, I could sense her presence, over all of the pain when I was in space, and through the nulled sensations due to the anesthetics.  
  
It took me another five weeks to fully heal, I had needed to regenerate my legs, face, and replenish my blood.  
  
When I finally woke up, I found Minty crying at the bed-side.  
  
I spoke very softly to her, to not startle her, "Hey, I'm okay-"  
  
She looked up and nearly jumped on me, but realized that I was bedridden, this I heard in her mind.  
  
She hugged me tightly, cried harder, then frogged my shoulder, "Don't you EVER do that again. What's wrong with you, picking a fight with a demon lord?"  
  
"Hmm, I have no clue what came over me." Then I stretched and groaned in pain, "So . . . what is my surprise? Huh? Huh? Huh?"  
  
She laughed lightly, "The everlasting kid. The first thing you think about is presents," she turned her side to me, "But your surprise should be obvious."  
  
I looked her over and gasped, "You-I-we, we're gonna have a cub!" I exclaimed ecstatically.  
  
Her face broke into a grin, "The baby's gonna be a daddy."  
  
"How far in are you?"  
  
"Well, when I found out, I was three weeks in, then you were gone for a month, missing for two months, and out for three and a half months," she tallied the number in her head, "About seven and a half months."  
  
I hugged and kissed her, "D'you know if it's a boy or a girl?"  
  
She took a deep breath, unsure about my reaction, "Girl."  
  
"Hmm, daddy's little girl . . . I like the sound'a THAT."  
  
She cuddled in the bed with me, neither of us having ever been happier . . .  
  
"AAAAAAAAHHH," screamed Minty.  
  
"Breathe Minty, breathe," I urged her, "I can see her head."  
  
"Hurts . . . AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH," she screamed in pain, again.  
  
Even with the spells that I had going, she was in a lot of pain. I was an idiot, while studied healing magic I never learned (or practiced what I did learn) of pain-killer spells.  
  
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH."  
  
The only one I knew was a minor empathy spell, which let the caster to absorb about 5% of the pain and damage of the subject.  
  
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH."  
  
I squeezed her hand, "Come on Minty, one more push. Just one more . . ."  
  
"Waaaaah," we both heard the cry of our little baby girl.  
  
We both seemed to radiate pleasure at seeing our little one in our arms . . . 


	5. Gone?

I grinned like an idiot as I cleaned the blood and birth fluids from our baby girl. She was very beautiful; lovely bright green eyes, in contrast to my aqua and Minty's black, and she somewhat resembled a half- elf, light, fair elven features but human energy.  
  
She uttered a wail of hunger and I took her over to Minty, who began feeding her. She purred as I held her and she fed our little one.  
  
Then, she looked up at me, "What d'ya think we should name'er?"  
  
"How 'bout Mia, after your grandmamma?"  
  
She nodded, "Our little Mia."  
  
Over the next few years, we discovered that Mia aged as slowly as, possibly even slower than, we were now, and that, with a bit of shape shifting, I could feed her as well. It was an odd feeling, not one I particularly enjoy, not like Minty, but it lets Minty rest a bit more as I take up some of the duties.  
  
Despite our little one, we still had an active love life. Minty was amazed that I still found her attractive at all.  
  
Just a few days after we celebrated Mia's fifth birthday (her actual birthday not the birthday of her apparent age) Minty and I decided to take her on a little sightseeing trip. It took a lot of bargaining, but my father allowed me to take a vacation, he only gave me nine days (the tight ass).  
  
We were viewing the system near one of the stars in the Fornax constellation, Minty and Mia had special space re-breathers on, when a familiar voice spoke to us, "Well, well ,well, if it isn't my wimpy-ass brother and his little abomination."  
  
Minty and I turned to see my brother, Coveter he called himself, floating behind us with a huge, apparently handcrafted, sword pointed at us.  
  
"What do YOU want?" I asked, ready to blast his brains out.  
  
"I just wanted to see the abomination that would be my niece," he said as he looked at Mia. "Ew, she really is an abomination, by the gods, Minty, I could have made a much more beautiful child."  
  
I lost my temper, then and there, and summoned my own hand-forged weapon; a battle staff covered in magical runes and markings, and lunged at him. He blocked my advance easily and retaliated by thrusting his sword through my gut.  
  
He yanked it out and blood flew everywhere. I turned to Minty, "GO, GET MIA OUT OF HERE-" but I never finished, for Coveter rammed his blade through my mouth and out the back of my head.  
  
Minty left and I started to pull at my full power. My wounds healed up and I began a new assault with my staff. He stabbed me several more times and he had a few broken bones where I had cracked him with my staff.  
  
Moments later our wounds were gone and we began another assault. It was apparent that I was by far outmatched in melee combat, so I resorted to my magic. I enveloped my staff in demon flames and lunged again.  
  
It took me several advances to finally hit him, but where I did, the bone shattered and burned over, that would take longer to heal. Before he could recover from my attack, I pointed my palm at him and unleashed a scatter- blast. I held the scatter-blast for a full five minutes, and when the light and smoke cleared, Coveter stood there with several holes in his body.  
  
He laughed as they healed over, "Aw, come now my weak little sib, you can do better than that." At that, he lunged and brought his sword down on my head. I brought my staff up just in time, but he shattered it with apparent ease.  
  
I shifted my shape back to my true form, what looked to be a human with huge dragon wings and wicked-looking three inch claws, and lunged at him again. I dodged his slow attacks and brought my claws across his chest, easily slicing through the one-inch-thick titanium vest he wore. Then I slashed again, cutting deep ruts in his flesh.  
  
Suddenly he doubled over, grunting in pain, "What did you do to me?"  
  
"So," I said in a condescending tone, "My 'big' 'strong' brother can't take a little venom?"  
  
I had discovered my venomous claws only recently, when I had been in the training chamber with Minty. I had barely nicked her and she was put in the hospital wing for weeks.  
  
He lunged again, but I easily dodged his sword and got in several more claw-slashes. I was amazed that he was resisting my natural venom as well as he was, but it was still taking its toll, he was slowing down.  
  
He dropped his sword, which evaporated, and began an unarmed assault. Now, even as fast as I was, I was having difficulty dodging his blows. Then, he finally landed one, then another, and another. He hit me several times and now I was taking the toll, the more damage there is, the harder it would be to regenerate.  
  
When he finally stopped, due to my venom, I was in a bad shape; several broken bones, hundreds of bleeding wounds, and I had lost a finger somewhere.  
  
He suddenly started laughing, I knew something was wrong, he rarely laughed unless definite of something, "What're you laughin' 'bout-" but I never finished, I felt fear in the mind of Minty.  
  
My brother laughed again, "You sense your little mate and your abomination, don'tcha? They're being attacked by Dendrak. You'd better hurry if you wanna try to save them."  
  
I launched myself in the direction that Minty and Mia were in, my power and myself no longer under my control, but being controlled by my panic, my fear, my hatred.  
  
I arrived to see Dendrak approaching Minty, who was bloodied and beaten. I launched myself at Dendrak, knocking him several meters further away from Minty. I rushed over to Minty just as she collapsed. I caught Mia, then her, Mia was fine, but Minty had the stench of disease on her, disease and Dendrak. What was worse was that she was dying.  
  
Again I lost control, my rage and hatred for Dendrak, fueled by blood- lust, caused me to begin an assault. Within moments I had him by the throat, and he was begging for his life.  
  
"I can cure her, I made the disease and I can destroy-" he began.  
  
"LIAR!" I screamed at him, "Liar, I smell the lies in your breath, truly, and I can feel the lie in your mind. You will pay for what you have done, I'm not gonna kill you, though, no that'd be to good for you. I'm gonna make sure that you're in pain for eternity, no, longer than eternity."  
  
I opened my door to my demi-plane, and dragged him in, still holding him by his throat. I hurtled through the corridors for a full half hour before stopping at a large black steel door, studded with black diamonds, and an onyx door knob.  
  
"Here is your eternal prison. The world past this door is one of immortality, of pain, a world of pure suffering."  
  
At that I opened the door. The power of the dimension was strong enough to cause pain even without being inside. I hurled Dendrak in as hard as I could an sent a blast in after him, then I shut the door. I stepped back and destroyed the door, now he would never get out.  
  
Now my thoughts turned to Minty and Mia. I opened the portal and returned to Minty. I held her and Mia tightly and I teleported towards my fathers base. When I arrived I went straight for him.  
  
"Please cure her, I'll do anything, ANYTHING, if you do. Just, please don't let her die," I begged.  
  
My father picked up her limp body and took her over to his scanner. It only took moments to scan her, she had Tritheria Syphis, the most deadly and painful disease in existence. It was also one of the few that there was no cure for.  
  
I fell to my knees at the news, crying, "There must be SOMETHING that you can do? She can't die, she just CAN"T!"  
  
My father looked thoughtful for a moment, "I could cryogenically freeze her, then release her when we find a cure."  
  
"Please do it. Hurry, before she succumbs to death. If she dies, I will follow her across the void and bring her soul back if I have to, I will, and you know it!"  
  
He nodded his head, picked up Minty and walked to the cryogenics room. He gently put her in a cryo-tube, shut and locked it, then activated it.  
  
The last thing I felt from Minty was her crying, then nothing as she was frozen. The nothingness I felt was awful, I had never been alone in my life. I had always been able to sense her, to feel her in and with my mind, but now nothing.  
  
I picked up Mia and took her to my room; I had to feed her by myself now. But, it no longer bothered me, I no longer cared about anything other than Mia, nothing else was important. After she ate, I put her in her crib. It was then that Minty's being gone hit me hard, again. I went into the demi-plane, and came out halfway across the universe. There I let the truth about Minty hit me, and it did, hard. I wailed out in anger, sadness, hatred, depression, rage. My power exploded, decimating the entire galaxy that I was in, and leaving me with no power.  
  
Now all I could do, was wait, wallowing in my sadness, until enough of my power came back to go back home . . . 


End file.
